Canadian Anglican Church embraces
gay unions
Leaders of Canada's Anglican Church declared war on the worldwide Anglican Communion's opposition to church blessings of same-sex unions March 11.
The Council of General Synod voted to recommend that this year's full General Synod declare 'that the blessing of same-sex unions is consistent with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada.'
The council also seeks approval from the synod to consider revising the church's marriage canon 'to allow marriage of all legally qualified persons.'
Canada is one of six nations where same-sex couples have access to full marriage.
Ironically, the moves came just days after an Anglican bishop in Saskatchewan stripped a priest of his license to minister because he wouldn't stop blessing same-sex marriages. The Rev. Shawn Sanford Beck of Saskatoon refused to back down as a matter of conscience, he said.
The worldwide Anglican Communion appears to be heading toward schism because of disagreements over same-sex unions and New Hampshire's selection of an openly gay, partnered bishop.
The battle primarily is between anti-gay national churches in Africa and gay-friendly national churches in Canada and the United States—with the Church of England and Anglican spiritual leader Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, stuck uncomfortably in the middle.
The U.S. branch of Anglicanism is known as the Episcopal Church.
Italians rally for
civil unions
Tens of thousands of Italians rallied in Rome's Piazza Farnese March 10 in support of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's civil-union legislation, which recently was placed on a back burner as Prodi struggled to hang on to power.
The legislation reportedly was removed from the government's priority list in late February as one of several concessions that allowed Prodi to cobble together a new parliamentary coalition large enough to save his job and prevent an election.
Gay Arabs to meet
in Jerusalem
Gay Arabs will gather in Jerusalem March 28 for a conference entitled 'Home and Exile.'
Although some 1 million Arabs live in Israel, it is rare for GLBT Arabs to organize public events.
The meeting is being put together by the Haifa-based Arab lesbian group Aswat. Up to 150 attendees are expected.
Canadian Supremes hand gays partial win
in pension case
Canada's Supreme Court ruled March 1 that the federal government violated the Constitution when it limited same-sex couples' eligibility for retroactive Canada Pension Plan benefits to people whose partners died after 1997.
The government established that cutoff in 2000 when Parliament granted same-sex couples full pension rights.
The Supreme Court, however, did not order payment of retroactive benefits all the way back to 1985, when equality rights took effect under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That would have cost the government around $100 million paid to some 1,500 claimants in the huge class-action suit.
Instead, the court ordered payment of one year's back pension as compensation to people whose partners died between 1985 and 1997. The individuals also will receive a pension of around $500 a month from now on.
'Achieving an appropriate balance between fairness to individual litigants and respecting the legislative role of Parliament may mean that Charter remedies will be directed more toward government action in the future and less toward the correction of past wrongs,' the court explained.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
